Hollywood Park : Al Mamoon Shines for Valenzuela

To the average race fan standing in line at the $2 window, Sunday’s $150,000-added John Henry Handicap at Hollywood Park presented all kinds of problems.

Whom to bet on?

If you chose Ferdinand, you ran the risk of his not liking the grass course. In his only prior start on grass--in the San Luis Rey Stakes at Santa Anita March 29--the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner had finished fourth.

If you chose Al Mamoon, you ran the risk of his not liking the switch in riders. Gary Stevens had been aboard for the horse’s previous four outings, but trainer Bobby Frankel decided to go back to Pat Valenzuela.

If you chose Clever Song, who had beaten Al Mamoon by a head in the Premiere Handicap two weeks ago, you ran the risk of the John Gosden-trained gelding not enjoying the same racing luck he had in the Premiere.

After all, had Stevens not allowed Al Mamoon to drift out slightly on the turn for home, Fernando Toro aboard Clever Song would not have been able to slip through on the rail and steal the race.

And then there were the others in the field. Trainer Charlie Whittingham had eased that problem somewhat Sunday afternoon by scratching Le Belvedere, who had finished third in the Premiere. But what to make of Skip Out Front and Eve’s Error, the remaining two horses?

Even the Daily Racing Form’s so-called “experts” had differed, two choosing Ferdinand, two going with Al Mamoon and a fifth selecting Clever Song. All in all, it was a difficult race to figure.

But not in hindsight.

Looking back after Al Mamoon had led from start to finish and had won by three-quarters of a length over the surprising Skip Out Front, he was the obvious choice all along. At least, that’s what Valenzuela thought.

“I really love this horse,” Valenzuela said. “Last year he won so many races for me. I just love riding him. He’s such a nice horse. To work him in the morning he’s like a freight train, he just pulls you around.”

That’s what Al Mamoon did Sunday before a crowd of 30,823. He took the lead out of the gate, held off Ferdinand and Bill Shoemaker and won comfortably, covering the 1 1/8 miles on a firm turf course in 1:47.

“Bobby (Frankel) said ride him how he comes out of the gate,” Valenzuela said. “He came out good, so I just sat on him. If Ferdinand wanted the lead, I was going to let him have it.

“He relaxed fine on the lead, and Ferdinand pressed me around the back side. I just sat as long as I had to and when I let him run he took off.”

The slow early pace--the half-mile was run in 49 seconds--hurt Ferdinand, who wound up third, 1 1/2 lengths behind Skip Out Front, ridden by Stevens. The pace also hurt Clever Song, who finished last.

The pace didn’t trouble Valenzuela, though.

“I really didn’t know how slow I was going,” he said, “but I knew I had plenty of horse. He really broke when I asked him.

“He seems just as good as he was last year at this time, when he started winning all them stakes and just kept getting better. Hopefully, he’ll stay the way he is, and if we’re still on him maybe we’ll get lucky in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Valenzuela seems likely to keep the mount he lost to Stevens after poor showings aboard Al Mamoon in last year’s Arlington Million and Breeders’ Cup Mile--especially after Stevens’ postrace comments Sunday.

“It’s better like this,” Stevens said of being taken off Al Mamoon. “I said what I felt last time when I rode the horse (Stevens had blamed himself for letting Al Mamoon drift), and if that’s why I got taken off, then fine.

“I thought I rode the horse good, I thought I kept the horse good.

“Obviously they (Frankel and the horse’s owners) didn’t think so, so I would have felt uncomfortable riding the horse anyway.

“(Skip Out Front’s) performance today just goes to show what you can do when you’re confident and when you feel good on a horse and when you know the people have got confidence in you.”

As for Shoemaker, he said Ferdinand was not bothered by the surface, but rather by the slow pace.

“He handled the grass all right,” Shoemaker said. “It was just the way the race was run. He’s had some bad luck the last few times; the pace has been awful slow.

“It was good for Pat and bad for the rest of us.”

Clever Song likewise suffered from the slow going. “He used himself too much pulling hard (at the bit),” Toro said.

Al Mamoon paid $4.60, $3.60 and $2.60 in earning the winner’s share of $91,700 for owner Edmund A. Gann of Rancho Santa Fe. Skip Out Front paid $7.60 and $3.20, while Ferdinand returned $3 to show.